Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice greeted warmly at Reagan library

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Ronald Reagan Preidential Library Director Duke Blackwood escort Nancy Reagan into the auditorium on Friday.

Special to The Star

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was greeted by long lines of supporters Friday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley.

Several hundred people waited in line to meet Rice, who was there to sign copies of her new book, "No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington," which was released this month.

The 57-year-old Rice also spoke inside the library's Presidential Learning Center about her eight years serving at the highest levels of government alongside then-President George W. Bush.

The warm greeting she received from the Reagan Library crowd on Friday was much different from her appearance at the Kent County GOP's annual dinner on Thursday in Michigan. While she was there, members of Occupy Grand Rapids protested her appearance, blaming Rice for promoting with her book the U.S. war in Iraq, which they believe is a culprit for the difficult economic times the country is in.

Many of the people waiting in line to get their book signed by Rice at the Reagan Library had praise for her.

Larry and Cindy Hanna from Van Nuys brought their daughter Kayla Hanna, 14, to meet Rice at the Reagan Library. Larry Hanna said that they believe Rice is a good role model and an inspiration to their daughter to go into public service.

"I have a lot of admiration for her," said Simi Valley Mayor Bob Huber, who was one of the first in line for the book-signing with Rice.

"She came from humble roots, and she's well respected. She's a shining example of goodness in government," Huber said.

Rice led off her speech attended by former first lady Nancy Reagan by talking about when she first learned about the 9/11 attacks, a subject she writes about her book.

She usually traveled with Bush, but on that day, he was only going to be gone for a couple of hours, so he traveled without his national security advisers.

Her assistant handed her a note saying that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center, and she thought that was strange. Then she got a note that second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, and she thought, "My God, this is a terrorist attack."

Changing topics, Rice talked about a "very strange" meeting she had with former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and a video he made of her to the song from a Libyan composer called "Black Flower in the White House."

Rice said she was glad Gadhafi gave up his weapons of mass destruction when Saddam Hussein was overthrown in Iraq.

"I was very glad when he was in those bunkers in those last few days that we had dismantled his weapons of mass destruction, which I'm quite sure he might have used in his last days," said.

Rice said when President Barack Obama and his administration came into power, they wanted to reach out their hand in friendship to the Iranians.

"Well, the Iranians bit it off. I think now they see this regime is dangerous. I would not be too surprised if you see a pretty tough line toward the Iranians, and we really need one," Rice said.

Growing up in segregated Birmingham, Ala., Rice said her parents always taught her, "There are no victims. You may not be able to control your circumstances, but you can control your response to your circumstances."

She said blaming someone else "is creeping into our national heritage."

"I think that's the work of the next leader of the United States of America, to remind us that once you give in to aggrievement and its twin brother entitlement, you've lost control of your life," she said. "And that's never, even in the darkest times, in the darkest of circumstances ... been the way America has followed."